Bowing to the new digital media reality, MIT’s vaunted Knight Science Journalism program has begun preparing its graduates for a life of poverty and derision.
Gone are the days when innumerate science “journalists” who majored in English or Gender Studies were taken seriously by a reading public whose trust in legacy media has gone kaput. Why pay attention to woke bloviations in discredited birdcage liners when you can tune in to real cutting-edge scientists and engineers posting on X or publishing on Substack?
Have you seen the Experts™ that pop up when you use Knight’s “find a fact-checker” service? Do you think any of them could make it through freshman year at MIT?
But, hey, professional science journalists have done such a swell job educating the public on issues like the origins of the SARS-CoV2 virus, the efficacy and safety of mRNA vaccines, the wonders of gender affirming care, or even complex subjects that stump Supreme Court justices like what is a woman. And let’s not forget the important role they played valorizing new ways of knowing, decolonizing math, and braiding indigenous knowledge.
So let’s all raise a glass and bid farewell to a profession that’s going the way of buggy whip manufacturers. And none too soon.